Norman Yakeleya

I will look at it and see if it eases my reference here. Okay. I have to read this before I have other questions I can speak later on to. That will be it for me.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister, in his ministerial statement, talked about education and I also heard some Members talk about the Mentorship Program here. I want to ask the Minister, I’ve been working quite diligently with him over a couple of years to look at a mentorship program in the Sahtu in terms of involving our real teachers in our culture, the elders. How do you get the real teachers into an education system to work with us and the parents? When will the Minister put forth a directive saying elders now have to be involved in our education system?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple of questions. Have the Ministers had an analysis of reducing the costs in my region by having a bridge here? In light of what we’re going to increase the budget for the bridge, I think the Minister of Transportation said it has a negative effect on the cost of living to reduce the cost of living. I know at one time it made sense, but now we’re adding additional dollars to it. Is this still the case to reduce the cost in the Sahtu and in Behchoko or Fort Providence or even Yellowknife?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m informed that the percentage of NWT aboriginal high school graduates has increased significantly since 2000. In 2008 approximately 50 percent of graduates were aboriginal; in 2000 only 30 percent of the graduates were aboriginal. In the same period the total number of graduates in smaller communities nearly doubled. Fifty-five percent of those 18 years and older in the NWT are now graduated from high school.

That all sounds like good news to me, but I’m still discouraged. Many of the Sahtu high school graduates don’t have a real high school graduation. They don’t...

Thank you for the update here. The Minister stated that they’re continuing with the relationship with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation. Are there going to be some changes? Because the way we’ve been dealing with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation has gotten us to this place right here. If that’s the case, then I’m not feeling too comfortable in terms of if things are going to change, because right now we have a $15 million supp that is going through the process here. I hope some things are going to change in terms of our relationship with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation. Otherwise, are we going to...

Just about got it there. So I’ll ask the Minister about realizing the economic potential. Is the Minister willing to share with the House in terms of some initial estimates or just as to what he’s talking about? Is that saved for the negotiations when you have negotiations with aboriginal governments or the federal government? It’s an interesting subject, because just myself in the Sahtu region, there is economic potential for oil and gas, hydro potential, minerals, even the Mackenzie Valley Highway construction. They had an economic analysis done on that and it showed a good return on...

So the Minister is going to table a document on March the 1st and then this triggers a process where there’s going to be public discussion now in the Northwest Territories as to the establishment of an NWT Heritage Fund. Is it six months of discussion with the public or is it going to be something like the other discussion papers we’ve had regarding utility companies? So I guess I wanted to see as to when does the Minister see this discussion on the establishment of the Heritage Fund being concluded or to move to another phase?

I’m good for that page.

Can I just get a brief on the other, on 1-13, $574,000?

This requires agreement in this House to increase the funding. I am not too sure if we even have an appetite for this by the Members. Of course, we have to find funding elsewhere and it’s got to go through a whole process here to seek an increase for funding. I am not sure if there’s an appetite, like I said, to increase the Metis funding for the locals here in terms of their operation. It is a good gesture by this government. No doubt about it. You know, for the Metis people for $13,235. You know how much it costs now to operate an office? Even ourselves as MLAs, we get budgets here to...